Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-12-24

dozen watches from Geneva, Sw 'zcr-
| NJ. telling the cus'sm house officer
on the wharf, There is nothing in that
trunk hut wearing apparel and put
ting u live dollar gold piece in his
hand to punctuate the statement.
THE CAMEL IN sYNTAx.
Described in the text are all those
who are particular never to break the
law Of grammar, and who want all
their language an elegant specimen OF
syntax, strdining out all the inaccura-
cies of speech with 2 fine sieve of liter
AIRY criticism, while through their con
versation go SANDER and inuendo, and
profanity and falsehoOds larger than "a
whole caravan of camels, when they
might better fracture every law OF the
language and shock intellectual taste,
and better let every verb seek in vain
for its nominative, and every noun for
it. government, and every proposition
lose its way in he sentence. and adjec-
tives and participates and pronouns get
into a grand riot worthy of the Fourth
ward on election day, than to commit
\ moral inaccuracy. Better swallow n
thousand gnats than n camel.
Such persons are also described in
the text who ara very much alarmed
about the small faults Of others, and
nave no alarm about their own great
transgressions. There are in every
community and every church
wATCn-DoGs
who feel called upon to keep their eyes
on others and growl. They are full OF
suspicious. They wonder il that man
10 not dishonest. il that man is not un.
clean, If there is not something wrong
about the other man. They are always
the first to hear OF anything wrong.
Vultures are always the first to smell
carrion. They are self-appointed de-
t~ectives. l lay this down A. a rule
without any exception, that those peo-
pie who have the most faults them
selves are most merciless in their
watching of others. From scalp Of
head TO sole Of foot they are full Of
jcalousies and hypercriticisms. They
spend their life in hunting for musk
rats and mud-turtles instead Of hunting
for Rocky Mpuntain eagles, always for
eomething mean instead ut something
grand. They look at their neighbors'
imperf -ction> through Il microscope,
anu look at Their own imperfeciions
throush Il telescope upside down.
Twenty faults of heir own d. not hurt
them 90 much rs one fault of some )ody
else. Their neighbors' imperfections
are like gnats anu they STRAIN tnenI out;
their own imperfectlons are ike camels
and they swallow them.
VISIT 70 THE CONFESSIONAL.
But ct some might think they es-
cape the scrutiny OF the text, | have 10
tell YOU that we al come under the
divine satire wien we make the ques-
tons o. time III IRE prominent than the
questions Of eternity. Come now. let
vs. all 90 into the confessional Are
not all tempted TO make the question.
Where shall i live forever? How shall
/ get more dollars here? greater than
the question, How shall | lay up treas
ures in heaven the question, How
shall ] pay my deb,s to m4np greater
than the question, How shall | meet
my obligations TO Coup the question,
How shall. | gain the worldp greater
than the question. What il | lose my
.oulP the Question. Why did God let sin
| come into The world? greater tnan the
question,
HOW SHALL 1 f IT EXTIRPATED
from my naturee the question, what
shall do with the twenty, or forty. or
| seventy years OF my sublundr existencep
greater than the question, what shall
do with the millions Of cycles of my
pcst-.crr oetrial e~I.stcnc2P Time, hew
snali it is! Eternity, how vast it IS!
The former more insignificant in com
| p%ariaon with the latter than a snat is
insignificant when compared with a
camel. We lodged the text. We
said, That doesn't mean me-" and
with a ruinous benevOlence w are
giving the whole sermon away.
QUESTIONS OF PRESENT FUTURE.
But let " I'll surrender to the charge
Whist an ado about things here. What
poor preparation for a great eternity.
As though q minnow were larger than
a behemoth, as though a swallow TOOK
wider circuit than an albatrOsS, a
though a nettle were taller than a Leb
non cedar, as though q onat were
greater than IA camel, rs though a min
ute were longer than a century, "a
though time were higher, deeper
broader than eternity. So the tex
winch flashed with lightning of wit a
Christ uttered it, is followed by tn
crashing thunders of awful catastrophe
to those who make the Questions @
time greater than the great question
Of the future, the oncoming, Overshai
owing future. . eternity! eternity
eternity!